Re: Bootstrapping a cooperative conlang

In a message dated 11/16/2007 1:56:43 PM Central Standard Time,
fiziwig@YAHOO.COM writes:


> I'm reminded of Wierzbicka's NSM definition of "mouse" which runs 33 lines
> of
> text with 355 words*, covering such things as category, habitat, size,
> appearance, etc. etc., all to narrow down the concept until "mouse" is the
> only
> thing that fits the bill. While theoretically fascinating, for the purpose of
> building a practical language for everyday use, a simple picture of a mouse
> would have sufficed. A picture truely is worth 355 words in this instance.
>
Her explication of "mouse" is so long because the meaning is so complex.  A
picture of a mouse could also mean lots of different things, such as just
"animal", or "pest", or the color of the mouse (if not black and white).

For the explication of a word in this new language, they need not have all
the detail of the corresponding English word.  The detail could be added
separately.

stevo

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